a blog by Montee Wellman

Finding Treasure in the Junk

One of my favorite things to do is to go junkin’ for architectural salvage, oil and watercolor paintings that were painted by some unknown artist, chippy/rusty things, and very old books. Yesterday, Castroville had its annual city-wide yardsale, so even though it was 5,000 degrees here in Texas, I made my way over. As I drove into town, I passed people selling their wares all along the highway leading into town. A lot of it looked like a bunch of junk, but I knew exactly where I could find some treasure. I have been to this sale the past couple of years, so I knew the house I was going to and that would probably be it for me. There are several people selling in the backyard of this one house and I always have found something there. Plus, it’s one of my favorite houses in the little town, and I just like to gaze at it. Reminds me of home a little. I got to the sale and immediately saw an interesting box filled with treasure and dug through, finding a nice salvaged metal piece. On a nearby table I found a pretty little oil painting, then farther down I found something rusted and something chippy. I walked around to the other tables and watched other people digging around for what they saw as treasure amongst all the junk piled throughout the yard. Everyone was finding something, and as the old saying goes, “One man’s trash, is another man’s treasure.”

When we look around at our world today, we see a lot of junk and it seems to be piled everywhere. You have to look hard and dig sometimes to find a treasure, but it’s there. Just like when I was digging through that box and found my treasure, God finds His treasures within the junk here on earth. He found a treasure in Noah who lived in a world that was so covered with evil, God had to send a flood to destroy everything and start over. When God became a Man with the name of Jesus, He found His treasured disciples during the time of the Roman Empire’s domination. God finds a treasure in us when we believe in His Son and accept Him as our Savior, allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us through a junky, sinful world. He then uses us to search, to dig, and to find more treasure for Him amongst the junk and He knows exactly where to send us to find it. When we believe in Him, what was once trash, is now His treasure. One day Jesus will return in all His glory to bring His treasure Home.